Stark's Adoption
by Dragons-Flying-High
Summary: Tony Stark was never someone you'd consider good as a father figure from a first glance. He was selfish, arrogant, and possibly the most reckless man the Avengers had ever known. But when Pepper is pronounced infertile, the pair decide to adopt 15 year old Amelia, bringing a whole new adventure into their life.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Yes I know I'm starting yet another fic but Illogical will finish this chapter and the Loki one will continue on with this one

I have too many ideas okay DX

* * *

This was it. Tony took a deep breath before stepping out of the car, trying to calm himself. He was never one to get nervous, but today was quite a big day. He looked up at the sign above the door; "Saint Aries' Orphanage", it read, in big yellow letters. Yeah, this was the right address Pepper had given him.

Knocking three times on the frosted glass windows, it wasn't long before someone came and answered the door. "Ah, Mr Stark, come in!" a rather plump but kind looking woman said, opening the door with a genuine smile. "I've had a look through the suggestions you gave me, and I've got a few children in the lounge, waiting for you." She showed him through to a small room with beige walls, where five children sat, all neatly dressed, they all looked so smart and respectable, almost too much to be true.

"Hey kids. I'm Tony," he said, squatting so that he was at level with the small kids. From the looks of things the oldest one there was about 7, with lovely golden ringlets in her hair. The boy in front of him smiled.

"You're Iron Man!" he said happily, voice full of glee from getting to meet his hero. Tony chuckled slightly, silently deciding that this one wasn't for him. He was a nice kid and all, but he didn't want someone who would know him as Iron Man, rather than a father figure. He same happened with the other boy, with blonde hair and blue eyes, will the small girl just smiled shyly. The two on the end were twins, both identical, holding each others hand. Tony didn't think it was wise adopting two kids, and he'd have hated to split them up.

He sighed. Ever since finding out that Pepper was infertile due to the effects of the Extremis, he'd been to three orphanages, and all have been the same case. They'd agreed nobody under the age of 5 or over 16, but Tony didn't want to put these young ones through the process of worrying if their dad would ever come back if anything were to happen. "Thank you all for your time," he said, standing back up. Facing the woman, he quietly whispered "I don't think these guys are quite right for the hectic lifestyle, I don't want to put them through it all."

"Of course Mr Stark, I understand. Be sure to give me a call if you need anything else," she replied as he walked out of the room. Once alone in the hallway, he pulled out his phone and gave Pepper a call.

"Hey honey, how'd it go?" his chirpy partner said at the other end of the line.

"Okay, but I don't think any of them are right," he replied, as Pepper sighed on the other end. "I just don't think their... durable enough for the lifestyle."

"It's okay honey, I understand. I'll see you when I get back from London. Love you."

"Love you too," he said, just as the line went dead.

"You do realise you can't be picky." A voice from above him said. Looking up, he saw a teenage girl in a hoodie leaning over the stair banister. She was giving him a rather annoyed look.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, you can't be too picky. I know you want a kid that can handle the lifestyle, but most of these guys are pretty tough." she continued. "They've all been abandoned by their family's, they had to be tough."

"Thanks for the advice kid but I think I'll leave the adopting up to me, thanks," he snarky replied back. She just sniggered.

"Whatever," she mumbled as she descended the stairs and walked over to him. Her straight hair was a dark brown, so dark it looked black in most lights, and her hoodie was blue with a logo of some sort on the front. From what Tony could remember it was the logo from Doctor Who. "Amelia, Amelia Hayn. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have tv shows to watch as I wait for the family that'll never appear."

With a sarcastic smile she left, heading towards the kitchen. The girl kind of reminded Tony of him when he was younger, cheeky and a bit of a brat, but he could tell she had a heart full of troubles underneath. She was doing exactly what he would do; put up a shield of snark remarks and sarcasm, but underneath she was hurting. Curiosity got the better of him, and he followed her.

"So, Amelia, how long you been here?" he asked, standing in the doorway. She gave him a look, as if to ask why it was any of his business, but he gave her an answer nonetheless.

"Well, they said I must have been just a few months old when I was dumped on their doorstep, so I'd say the whole 15 years of my wasted life." she said, pouring a glass of coke for herself. "You want some?"

"Eh, no, I'm good thanks." Tony replied, feeling sorry for her. The whole 15 years, stuck in a place like this.

"So, what brings you to our humble abode, Mr Stark? No offence, but I didn't really see you as someone who'd jump at the chance to be a dad." Amelia asked him. "I mean, you're some kind of superhero I guess, I didn't think the job really matched with parenting."

"That's what I said to Pepper but we've decided to go ahead with it. Plus, I'll reprogram the AI systems to take care of them if I'm away." he mumbled.

"AI? Oh, what programming core does it run on? Let me guess... A19, newest Stark model, probably with the Amex processor. Am I right?" Amelia said, racking her brain for the stats she'd read on the new models. The woman who owned the orphanage made sure to always pick up tech magazines for her if they were going cheap, and she now had about two boxes full of them.

"Huh, you know your stuff, kid. You like your computers?" The billionaire asked, intrigued.

"Computers, programming, engineering, basically anything to do with technology. I've gotta say, I like the suit." she admitted, thinking of the modifications she could make. A new aiming system, some clearer displays, maybe some new wiring here and there.

"Yeah, a lot of people are." Tony pulled something out of his pocket, something that he'd forgotten to leave in the lab. "See this? Tell me what you think it is."

Amelia took it gently, the concentration in her face at a high level as she looked over it.

"Well, from the size, weight, and external workings that I can see, I'd guess it's an energy catalyser. Concentrates it then shoots it out, probably an adjustment to give the suit some more power." she said after a minute or so. Tony raised his eyebrows.

"I'm impressed, you're good. Not many 15 year olds know that kinda thing."

"Well, I guess I'm not like many other 15 year olds, am I now."

"Apparently not. Huh." A thought ran through Tony's mind. "Stay there, I'll be back in a minute."

Tony quickly walked through to the office, where he found the woman who'd answered the door. "Oh, hello Mr Stark! Can I help you?"

"Yes. I was wondering if I could have adoption papers for Amelia Hayn?"

Amelia sat in Tony's car, suitcases in the back, watching the buildings of New York fly by. She was almost lost in the beauty created by the swirling mix of skyscrapers and shops.

"You okay kid? You're awfully quiet." Tony said, hoping she didn't resent him for adopting her. Then he remembered her reaction when he'd told her, and all thoughts of her resenting him flew away.

"Yeah. This part of New York is just really pretty. I presume by the big name on top, that that's Stark Towers?" she said pointing to the building up ahead.

"Wow, real observant one you are." he said sarcasticly, causing her to roll her eyes. As Tony pulled into the massive multi story garage that housed all his fancy cars, Amelia was pointing out ones she recognised.

"You like your cars?" he asked.

"A little bit. It's the engines that I'm more interested in." she said back, smiling. Tony liked her smile, it made him smile. "But don't you have a bit too many for one guy?"

"Well, being a billionaire does have its perks." Tony remarked, causing Amelia to roll her eyes once more. He parked flawlessly as usual, and he directed her to the elevator as she carried one of her suitcases, while Tony had the other and a few bags.

Tony pressed buttons and the elevator whizzed upwards, directed to the top floor. JARVIS, the AI system, suddenly spoke up.

"Mr Stark, who is our new guest?" the computerised voice said. Amelia seemed startled at first, but once she realised what it was she just smiled with excitement.

"JARVIS, this is Amelia. I've adopted her." Tony replied starkly to the AI.

"JARVIS? That's what you called it?" Amelia asked sceptically.

"Yes. I think it's fitting. And its a him, not an it." Tony said, getting a small chuckle from her.

"JARVIS, tell me something. Does Tony ever boss you around?" she asked, grinning at him.

"I would say he indeed does, Miss Amelia." the reply came, a sigh erupting from Tony.

"Oh no you don't. You are not turning him against me." he said, as the lift door opened. Amelia was about to throw back a snide remark, but she was caught back by the sight in front of her. The great open space of the large penthouse area was breathtaking. There was a large tv that hung on the wall, with a plush, soft looking white couch sat opposite it. She saw a bar, filled with various bottles full of alcohol, which threw her off slightly. Everything else was sleek and fancy looking, and Tony let her in with her suitcases and bags.

"Welcome to Stark Towers, I guess," he said, trying to give her a warm welcome. "This is the kind of lounge/bar area, your room is down a floor, there's a gym, a games room, a music room and all sorts all around the place. I'll show you to your room if you want-"

Tony was cut off mid sentence but being pulled into a hug by his new adopted daughter.

"Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she sobbed, tear of joy streaming down her face. She finally had a home, a family. This man, who she met literally a few hours ago, had taken it upon himself to give her a place in the world. She felt privileged.

Tony, caught slightly off guard by the sudden hug, just smiled and hugged her back. "You're welcome," was all he could say, and he rubbed her back in comfort. Once she'd composed herself she let go, looking up and smiling as she wiped off the tears.

"Come on, lets go see your room," Tony said, taking her hand and leading her, both of them smiling all the while.


	2. Chapter 2

Amelia's first full day in Stark Towers was amazing. When she woke, she'd walked down a small set of stairs, following the smell of bacon. She stood in the kitchen, in a pair of track suit bottoms and an old t-shirt that she'd slept in that night, watching Tony attempt to make pancakes. The bacon looked cooked right, and she licked her lips at the sight of it.

"Good morning sleeping beauty," Tony said to her when he saw her. "Breakfast is ready."

Amelia didn't realise how hungry she was until she sat down and Tony placed a plate of bacon and pancakes in front of her, and with her first bite she was in heaven.

"This is really good!" she said through a mouthful of food, while Tony sat down with his own plate.

"I know, I'm amazing aren't I," he said, taking a bite of his own. "By the way, we're picking up Pepper from the airport at 2, so you'd better hurry and finish that."

"Hm? What time is it?" the girl asked, not having looked for a clock. When she saw the digital display on the cooker that read 1.15, she couldn't believe she's slept that long. Nodding, she quickly finished up the last of breakfast and dumped her plate in the dishwasher, before running off to get dressed.

Tony chuckled to himself, but two seconds later she had run back, a quizzical look on her face. "Which way is my room again?"

After having shown her the way to her room, Tony returned to the kitchen, putting his own plates in the dishwasher, when the AI spoke up.

"Sir, Miss Potts' flight is on schedule." JARVIS said.

"Good. Tell Amelia to be ready in ten minutes." he replied, but before JARVIS could confirm Amelia herself had appear behind him, wearing a plain grey hoodie with a pair of blue jeans, and her long dark hair was tied back in a bobble.

"No need JARVIS, I'm ready." she said.

"Yes Miss." he replied, then going quiet.

"You got ready fast," Tony commented.

"One of my many useless skills," Amelia replied.

"Speaking of useless skills; I know you went to a school before hand, and I was wondering if you'd like to change schools or want to keep going there?" he asked. Amelia paused, thinking long and hard about it.

"Well, I've already put work towards my exams, and I do have a few friends, so I'd rather just stay at my current school, of that's okay with you." she replied.

"Yeah, that's perfectly fine with me. Now come on, we'd better go pick up Pepper. Oh, and have this." Tony threw something at her, nearly hitting her in the face if not for her quick reaction time. It was a phone, very fancy looking, one that she hadn't seen before. "Thats an invention of my own. I thought you'd need one. My number and Pepper's number are already in there."

"Thanks, this things really cool," was all she could reply with, fiddling with all the options on the menu.

"Now come on, you can play with it in the car. We don't want to be late, or I'm dead meat."

-

They reached the airport fairly quickly, and soon a pretty, red haired woman approached the car. Tony was smiling as soon as he saw her, and Amelia recognised her form pictures as Pepper Potts, Tony's girlfriend and her new adoptive mother.

"Hey honey!" she said when Tony got out of the car, motioning for Amelia to follow. She did as he said, and Peppers face grew to a massive grin when she lay eyes on the 15 year old. "Hi! You must be Amelia! Em, I'm Pepper."

Pepper embraced her in a motherly hug, and Amelia decided that she liked this woman already. "Yeah, I'm Amelia. It's nice to meet you."

"I hope Tony took good care of you."

"Yeah, he cooked me breakfast. Bacon and pancakes."

"And the pancakes weren't burnt?"

"Nope."

"Gosh, well, there's a first time for everything."

Tony sighed, figuring that having two girls in the house would be worse than having one. "Yes, now that we're all finished criticising my cooking abilities, which may I add are very reliable, may we go?" he said, putting Peppers bags in the trunk of the car.

"Yes sir," Pepper mocked, planting a quick kiss on his cheek. He just rolled his eyes and got into the car, as did the two woman, and started the engine.

"So, how'd you like Stark Towers?" Pepper asked the teenager.

"It's really big, and I got lost on the way back from breakfast this morning, but I'm sure I'll get used to it," Amelia replied. "Plus, my room is pretty cool."

"I designed it, just saying," Tony said from the drivers seat, to which Pepper rolled her eyes.

"Ignore him, he just likes getting credit for everything." she said. "Also, I bought a little something for you when Tony called to give me the good news."

Pepper looked through her handbag, until she found and brought out a small blue box. She handed it to Amelia with a big smile on her face. "Here, open it." she said.

When Amelia opened it, she was taken aback suddenly. In the box, attached to a beautiful silver chain, was an engraved locket with a small sapphire in the middle. Engraved on the locket were flowers and vines, perfectly capturing the blue stone's beauty. "It's beautiful," she said, looking at it in awe. "Thank you so much!"

"It was nothing. Plus, I'm sure Tony has showed you all his shiny toys in his lab."

"Actually, I was saving that for when you got back. What'cha say kiddo, fancy a look in the toy box?" Tony said, looking at her from the rear-veiw mirror.

"Oh, defently." she replied, a grin on her face. She's read about all the amazing inventions he'd made, and those were just the ones the press knew about. Who knew what cool gadgets were sitting in that tower.

When they got back Pepper had excused herself to go unpack all the clothes from her business trip, so Tony was taking Amelia down to the lab. The young girl was more excited that she's been that whole day, the prospect of getting to see how everything worked filling her with glee.

When the elevator doors opened, her smile got even wider. Tools and wired were laid all over the desks, and things hung on the wall that she couldn't even guess the uses for. She saw a rather large looking gauntlet, a metal boot, what looked like miniature thrusters. "How many things do you have in here?"

"Too many to count. Here, let me show you something." Tony walked over to a work bench, where what looked like one of the gloves from an Iron Man suit lay. He picked it up, and motioned for her to come over. "See this? It's been modified with the energy catalyser I showed you yesterday."

Tony put the glove on, the metallic components locking into his hands shape and size. "You just aim, and... bam!" he said, as a blast of energy flew across the room, hitting the wall, and causing Amelia to jump out of the way. "You want a try?"

She nodded as he took the glove off and placed it onto her right hand. It was a weird sensation, to have a contraption lock onto her hand, but she aimed it just like he'd shown her, and sure enough it fired, almost hitting the same spot. "This is so cool." he murmured, grinning.

"Your aim's not that bad either," Tony complimented, taking the glove back off. "I would offer to make you a suit of your own, but I think Pepper would kill me."

She laughed at the idea of her in an Iron Man suit, flying around New York. "Sounds cool," she said, "but I'm good. So, have you fitted the catalyst into all of the armour yet?"

"No, just this part. Bruce was coming over today to help me finish the rest actually.." Tony said.

"Bruce?" Amelia asked, not recognising the name.

"Yeah, Dr Bruce Banner. You know, big green guy, smashes stuff."

Amelia remember seeing pictures of a big green guy surrounding the battle of New York. "Wasn't he one of the Avengers?"  
s  
"Yup. Oh, speak of the devil.." Tony said, looking at a computer screen.

"Tony? Pepper said you were down here." a voice said, coming from the direction of the elevator. A man walked in, with slightly curly brown hair. He work a smart jacket, but looked nothing like the big green guy she's seen in pictures.

"Yeah, I'm over here." Tony called back.

"Hey. Oh, hello," he said, seeing Amelia. "I eh, I'm Bruce."

"Hey Bruce, I'm Amelia, Tony's new adopted daughter."

Bruce nearly took a double take. "Daughter? You and Pepper finally adopted?" he asked Tony.

"Yup. You'll like her, she's good with technology."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Amelia," the doctor said, shaking her hand. "I presume Tony was showing off with his fancy toys."

"Why does everyone always presume I'm showing off?" Tony said, faking being offended.

"Because you are," Amelia replied, and Bruce chuckled.

"She knows you well already," he commented, smiling at her. "Just don't go building her a suit, Pepper would kill you."

"Oh, he knows," she said, laughing. She liked Bruce, he seemed trustworthy, and caring. "So, shall we get started?"

"You want to help too? Sure, the more the merrier," Tony agreed, handing her some sort of wiring tool. "Let's get started."

-

Four hours and quite a few sarcastic remarks later, all the adjustments were done. Tony hadn't needed to give Amelia too much guidance, as she knew her way around wires pretty well, so before long she was testing the left hand glove, making sure it worked properly.

"You did good work kiddo," Tony said as the trio stood back to admire their work. The suit stood fully together, all catalysers in place. "I'm tempted to take it out for a spin."

"Don't bother, dinner's ready," Pepper said, appearing behind them. "Bruce, would you like to stay for dinner?"

"I'd love to, but I'd better be heading home. I'll see you soon, Amelia." he replied, shaking the teenagers hand again.

"Bye Bruce!" she called to him as the elevator doors closed. "Bruce should definitely come over again."

Tony chuckled. "Well, good to know he got your seal of approval. Now come on, time for food. Speaking of, what exactly is for food?

"I ordered us in some pizza, seeing as it's Amelia's first full day as a part of the Stark family." Pepper said.,

Family. The word hit Amelia like a hammer, the realisation once more coming back. She had a family now, she had a father and a mother who cared for her. She felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

"I didn't know what type you like, so I just ordered a bunch. I hope that's okay-" Pepper began, but Amelia threw herself at her new mom, hugging her.

"Yeah, I like everything really," she said as she hugged the redhead, smiling with a massive grin.

"Alright girlies, pizza time," Tony said, hurrying them out of the room as his hunger remained unsatisfied. Once up to the top floor they were greeted by about six massive pizza boxes, all smelling delicious. They didn't bother with plates, the boxes just being passed between the three of them as they sat on the large and heavenly comfy sofa, watching an episode of Doctor Who (as suggested by Amelia). Of course, she'd already seen this episode a million times before, but Tony seemed quite into it.

"What? That's where they leave it? That cliffhanger?" he said, looking at the tv screen, annoyed. Amelia and Pepper laughed in unison, while Tony just glared back at them. "Maybe I should just go build my own TARDIS."

"Do that, and you'll have people at your door begging to go to other worlds," Amelia said. "Plus, you've already got the arc reactor, save the discovery of time travel for someone else, don't be greedy."

"Greedy? I just saw you eat about 2 whole pizzas worth of slices, missy." Tony jested back.

"And you just ate about 3 pizzas worth."

"I'm a man, I need my fuel for saving the world and stuff,

"I'm a teenage girl, I need my fuel for doing homework and watching Doctor Who."

"Hmm, Touché kid. Now come on, I want to show you something. Follow me."

She did as he said, following his to a small flight of stairs going up. "I thought we were already on the top floor?" she asked as they climbed up.

"We are. We're going to the roof."

Tony opened a small metal door, telling her to close her eyes. She nodded and closed them, the entire world going black. Tony led her out, and she could feel the cool New York evening breeze on his cheeks. "Alright, when I say, open." he said, stopping her in a certain spot and taking a step back. "Okay, now."

Amelia opened her eyes and she was amazed by what she saw. All around her, New York was lighting up, each lit window like a shining star in a sea of buildings. The nighttime darkness was starting to set in, and the world had never seemed so beautiful.

"It's breathtaking," was all she managed, taking it all in.

"I know. I like to come up here this time of night, gives you a real sense of ruling the world." he replied sarcastically. Amelia rolled her eyes for the billionth time that day.

"You're hopeless, you know that," she jested back, smiling at him.

"Yup, one of my many useless skills." he mimicked her from that morning. "Here, have a seat."

Tony motioned to a bench that she hadn't realised was there, and she sat next to him as the city lit up before them.

"Thanks dad." she said, feeling it the appropriate time to start calling him that.

"You're welcome Amelia," Tony said back, the warm feeling when she called him dad making him smile.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, sleepy head. Time to get up, you have a fun day of school ahead of you!" a sarcastic voice said as Amelia was awoken from her sleep. She groaned as she attempted to sit up in the mass of the duvet, but ended up collapsing back down again and nearly falling asleep.

"Uuuu... I don't need school I'm smart enough as it is," she moaned, face first in a pillow.

"Do you know the chemical balanced equation for photosynthesis?" Tony asked her.

"Okay so maybe I forgot everything I learnt in Biology, but I don't take it any more, it doesn't count." she tried, but Tony just shook his head.

"Just because your dad's amazing doesn't mean you don't have to go to school. Now go on, I've got a surprise for you when you get home."

"It better be a letter saying that I don't have to go to school any more." she said, finally standing up. She stretched as her body began to wake up, and Tony left the room, muttering a "you wish."

Amelia got dressed into her normal school-ware; a pair of black jeans, a plain black T-shirt and a grey hoodie. Throwing on her pair of black converse over a pair of socks, she walked down to the kitchen, where she saw Tony and Pepper talking quietly to one another. Pepper looked almost worried. As soon as they saw her enter they ceased whispering and smiled at her, making her wonder what this surprise was that would be waiting for her.

"Morning sweetie," Pepper chimed, smiling at her. "Looking forward to school?"

"Yeah, I really enjoy learning worthless stuff about algebra. But I get to see my friends, so it's all good. I get to tell them the good news today, and I can get their numbers as I have a phone now," the teenager reasoned, figuring that the highlight of the day would be her friends reactions when she told that that she'd been adopted by Tony Stark.

"Eh, kid, what time does school start for you?" Tony asked, looking to the clock. Amelia looked as well, and her eyes widened.

"Em, in about 15 minutes. I'll be back in a second, I need to go grab my bag!" she said, running off to get her stuff. Tony threw his coat on and grabbed his car keys, and Amelia returned, all ready for school. "We'd better get going," she told him.

"I'll see you later, have fun at school!" Pepper called after her as the pair got into the elevator and headed down to the garage.

Once in the car and on the road, they got there just in time before the bell rang. "Have fun kiddo!"

"See you later dad!" she said back, waving at him as she ran into the main building. The flurry of people surrounded her, as was per normal on a Monday morning, and the air was full of chatter from the weekend. Some were talking about a game that'd just come out, some were gossiping about parties that had happened, but it all just mixed into one massive swirling cloud of voices. The only ones that stood out were the ones she was looking for.

"Amy!" a voice from behind her called. She turned to see her best friend Matthew wave at her from across the corridor.

"Matt! Hey!" she said, going over beside him at his locker. "How was your weekend?"

"Good, I was playing some TF2 with Lewis and Elliot most of the time," he said. "What about you?"

"Oh, mine was... eventful, I guess you could say," she said, giving him a mischievous grin. Matt's mouth dropped.

"D-did.. Did you get adopted?" he stuttered, amazed.

"Yes! Yes I did!"

"Amy that's amazing! I'm honestly so happy for you!" he said, pulling her into a massive hug. "Who? What are they like? Are they nice?"

"Well,_ that_ I have to tell you in private. I'll meet you in the canteen at break okay, I'll tell you then. I got to go, chemistry first thing! Lots and lots of formulas to balance!" Amelia smiled, leaving her friend and heading towards her registration class. She sat there for fifteen minutes in silence, flicking through her chemistry notes from the past few weeks. As soon as the bell rang she was up in a flash, eager to get to her next class.

Chemistry was the usual; the teacher would teach them something new, go over it a few times so that everybody understood, then give them a heap of questions from the book to practice. Ah, the joys. But it passed fairly quickly, especially considering that it was a double, and break came soon enough. She was dying to tell Matt the good news.

"So, tell me everything," he said, appearing behind her. She had sat herself at a small two seated table in the corner of the canteen, out of earshot from anyone else. "Any why so secretive? It's not the president is it?"

"No you idiot, it's not the president," she replied, laughing at his theory. "Okay, you have to promise to keep it quiet. It's nothing big, I just don't want everyone making a big thing over it."

"I promise."

"Okay. Tony Stark."

Matt nearly choked on air when she's said that. "What?" he said after recovering. "Did you say Tony Stark? Like, Iron Man Tony Stark?"

"Yes, what other Tony Stark do you know?"

"Wow, Amy, wow," was all he could say. "Does this make you instantly rich?"

She gave him a light punch in the arm for his joke, to which he laughed. "You're an idiot Matt."

"Yes, but I'm the idiot you chose to socialise with, so now you're stuck with me."

"What a terrible mistake I've made."

"It'll haunt you forever."

"I'll be turning in my grave."

* * *

School could not have ended quicker. As soon as she'd said goodbye to Matt and managed to get his number, she'd run out to the car where Tony was waiting.

"Hey. Become really popular due to your new dad today?" he said as she got in the car. She rolled her eyes and they both laughed, driving off down the road. "Also, who's your boyfriend there?"

"Matt? Oh, no, Matt and I are just really good friends," Amelia explained. "If any romantic feelings were ever there, they left years ago. Neither of us feel that way about the other. We're just really good friends."

"Okay, if you say so," Tony remarked, speeding up. "You ready for your surprise?"

Amelia's eyes widened; she'd forgotten about that "surprise" waiting for her. "I'd completely forgotten about it actually."

"Well, you're in for a treat," he said, smirking. Due to his relatively fast speed they got home quite quickly, and soon she was sitting on the sofa on the top floor with Pepper, while Tony went and made the final preparations for her surprise.

"Alright, it's ready," he said, appearing after half and hour. "Come on."

Amelia and Pepper followed, the teenager eager to see what it was they'd kept a secret from her. They soon reached a small door, nearly opposite the hall from her bedroom, and Tony stopped. Opening the door, it was like stepping into a wonderland.

A lab, a massive lab full of wiring tools and machines and computers. A lab giving her the possibility to build anything she could imagine. And it was all just for her.

"Dad, this is amazing!" she said, walking in and admiring it all.

"Well, last night you seemed to enjoy working so much, and I thought I'd give you the facilities," he father said, admiring his work. It had taken the whole day to convert the room into a lab, but it was all worth it to see the smile on her face. "Just don't go building any death rays, okay?"

"I promise," she said, still grinning. "What should I make first though?"

"Dinner?" Pepper said, laughing. Tony rolled his eyes and Amelia joined in with the laughter, while ideas of inventions ran through her head. She thought of a watch with the user interface integrated into it, pencils that could write her work for her, the possibilities endless.

"Speaking of dinner, it'll be ready in about an hour, so we'll leave you to play around for a while. If you need help with anything just ask JARVIS or me," Tony said, his arm folded. "And try not to blow anything up."

They left her, and she was now in her own little toy room, advanced technologies at her fingertips. She hadn't tried these new computer systems yet. Touching the massive table that was essentially one big screen, she jumped back as holographic images flew up around her. This technology seemed too good to be true, yet here it was, right in front of her. She pondered a minute, not sure what to build first. The watch idea came back to her head, but she wanted to make something for Tony and Pepper, as a bit of a thank you for taking her into their life. Grabbing a sort of pen, she did a few doodles on the screen, trying to figure out what to make. That's when the light bulb moment happened. Smiling to herself, she began to draw up sketches, and soon the blueprints were finished.

"Now," she said to herself, "time to get to work."

* * *

"Miss Amelia, Miss Pepper requested me to inform you that dinner is ready." The AI said, about an hour later.

"Thanks JARVIS, tell her I'll be right there," Amelia said thankfully. She wiped the grease from her hands and mopped the sweat of her brow, admiring how much she's managed to do in just an hour. Grabbing her creation, she headed out of the room and towards the kitchen.

"Ah, there you are," Tony said as she walked in, greeted by the smell of fresh pasta. "Have fun?"

"It's brilliant!" she exclaimed, throwing him a massive grin. "I made you this."

She held out her hand, showing him a small red and gold disk, the same colour scheme as his suit. Pressing a small button in the middle of it, two small rotors popped out, the device began to hover.

"It's a little addition for the suit; this thing has a camera in it, so it can go ahead and scout out areas. It's also got a heap of technology packed in there, meaning it can scan, hack, and even cloak itself," she explained, taking out her phone. "I've connected it to my phone for now, but it can be paired with pretty much any device using the same interface. Here, watch this."

Typing commands into the screen, she told the little device to go towards the table. Doing as it was told, it flew over quickly, no sounds coming from its rotors. Scanning a fork, a small claw extended, picking it up, and placing it in Tony's hand. He looked awestruck.

"You build this in an _hour_?" he asked her, amazed at her quick work.

"It's still got a few bugs, but I thought I'd make you something that would be useful to you," Amelia said, smiling.

"This is brilliant! Can I ask for three more to make a complete set for the suit?" Tony said, getting all excited at this brilliant little device.

"Yeah, sure!" Amelia agreed, as Tony put the fork back down on the table. Pepper just smiled.

"You two are so alike, it's as if you two_ are_ related. You really made the right choice Tony," she said, putting her arms around him. "Now come on, you can talk science later, the ravioli is ready."

They all sat at the table, and Tony admired how they looked like a proper family already. When Pepper had first found out that she was infertile, she was so devastated, neither of them knew what to do. Now he looked at her, and the smile spread across her face lit up the entire room, and he was very grateful for Amelia. He couldn't have asked for a better daughter.

Dinner was finished quite quickly, as they were all hungry from their busy days, and Pepper left the task of washing up to Tony and Amelia. Bad idea, as within a few minutes Tony was throwing soap bubbles at her, and she was throwing them back, creating a mess of white in the kitchen. Their laughter rang throughout the whole tower, bringing with it the feeling of family.

* * *

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have an urgent report," a tall man said, walking in and handing the files to his superior. Nick Fury accepted the papers, flicking through them, and a worried expression cut across his face.

"Hmm. Seems we'll need to call for drastic measures. Send out the call," Fury replied. He'd hoped the call wouldn't have been needed for a long time.

"Yes sir," the tall man nodded, leaving Fury's office. The colonel sighed; it was going to be a long night.

* * *

**AN: Hey guys! I was really surprised by all the positive reviews I got, I'm really glad you all liked it! ^_^ And don't worry, the rest of the Avengers will make an appearance soon enough!**

**I've decided to add a proper plot to this story, as I have a feeling it could work really well. I doubt they'll be any romance (unless amy canon couples like Thor and Jane make an appearance, but even then it'll be very small parts and won't be a big thing), but I'm planning alot of action. **

**Anyhoo, enjoy!**


	4. Chapter 4

2 weeks later and Amelia was still getting used to living in Stark Towers. She was used to all the technology and JARVIS, and she was pretty well acquainted with all the equipment in the labs, but_ still_ she would get lost in the mass of floors. It came to a point where JARVIS would often appear and have to direct her.

"I'm just not used to such a big place," Amelia said as her dad mocked her for getting lost again.

"Sure, whatever you say kiddo," he laughed, throwing a kitchen towel at her. They were in the kitchen, Tony cooking lunch and Amelia sitting at the table doing English homework. "How's the homework coming along?"

"I hate Macbeth and Shakespeare and school," she sighed, resting her forehead in the middle of her papers. "Well, no, I do like Shakespeare except when we have to annotate and analyse a whole play."

"You're fifteen, you've only got a few more years of school left." Tony said.

"That's a few years too many. I've lived in an orphanage for my entire life, I think I can handle the big bad world," the teenager groaned, shutting her jotter and giving up on the homework for the time being. "Is the food ready yet?"

"Burgers are nearly done, have patience. They'll be cooked in five minutes or so."

"I'll be on the balcony, give me a shout."

Amelia sat up from her chair, grabbing her book, and headed out to the balcony that sat above New York City. She got a great view of the whole city from there, and she'd placed a nice comfy chair in the sun, perfect for reading.

Sitting down, she opened her copy of _The Maze Runner _to the last page she'd read, and continued to read on in the Saturday sunlight. The smell of cheeseburgers drew her from the fictional world, and Tony walked over to her, two of them on a plate.

"Here you go kiddo," he said, handing her the plate. He sat down with his own, crossing his legs and sitting on the floor next to her. "Hey, kiddo, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it dad?" Amelia responded, taking a bite out of the burger.

"Do you remember anything about your parents? I mean, your biological parents."

Amelia stopped, trying to answer. In truth, she didn't remember much before the orphanage. She's been left there at age 3, and the only thing she remembered from her life before that was the distinct sound of her mothers laughter. She subconsciously reached for the sapphire locket around her neck, the one Pepper gave her, and held it in her hand.

"All I remember is my mothers laugh, that's it," she told him, taking another bite.

Tony nodded, stuffing his face with his own food. They ate in silence, as Pepper was away at a meeting, and neither of them wanted to interrupt the beauty that was New York City gleaming in the sunlight.

"Hey, since Peppers away for a week, you want to do something fun?" Tony asked, finally breaking the silence. "I was thinking we could go down to the zoo or something."

"I'm afraid you won't have time for that today, Stark," a low voice from behind them said. Amelia turned to see a tall, dark skinned man, standing in a black coat and an eye patch.

"Fury? What the hell are you doing in- JARVIS, what have I told you about security?" Tony said, standing up and looking quite annoyed.

"My apologise sir, it seems S.H.E.I.L.D are quite successful at hacking into my systems," the AI explained.

"I'm not here to argue Stark, I've just come to deliver a message." Fury stopped suddenly, noticing Amelia. "Who's this?"

"That's Amelia, my daughter," Tony said, defiantly.

"Ah yes, we were aware that you and Miss Potts adopted. Congratulations," Fury replied sarcasticly.

"Thanks. Now why are you in my house?"

"Like I said, I've come to deliver a message. We need you and the others to fall in again."

Tony stood still, and Amelia was unable to tell what he was thinking. "Are you kidding? What, did you find another alien cube that's been stolen?" Tony asked, part angry and part sarcastic.

"I can't explain here, you need to come with us to base," Fury said, sighing.

"Uh uh, no. I can't just give up everything and go because you asked nicely," Tony said. "I have a daughter, I need to look after her."

"Dad, I'm fifteen, I'm pretty sure I'll be okay," Amelia said, standing up. "Look, I have no idea who this guy is or what he's talking about, but It sounds important. You'd better go with him."

"Fine, but you're coming too. I don't want you left on your own, especially when it appears my security system can be hacked into so easily. Go get your shoes on and grab your jacket," her dad reasoned. She nodded, running off to her room to do as he asked. He turned to Fury. "Listen; if any harm comes to my daughter, I will purposely take it upon myself to give you another eye patch. We clear?"

"Look at you Stark, being all protective and fatherly. It touches my heart," Fury replied dryly. "But I can assure you she'll be safe."

"Good. Now go, I'll meet you down in the lobby in five minutes."

* * *

"Dad, can I ask why we're being taken to a top secret base by a man with an eye patch?" Amelia said as Tony drove himself and his daughter, following Fury's convoy of cars.

"Because it appears that these guys can't keep the world safe so they need me to do it for them," he replied. "Well, me and the other guys, but mostly me."

"Other guys? You mean the rest of the Avengers?" she asked. "Does this mean I get to see Bruce again?"

"You might. Just be careful, okay? They are the good guys, but I still don't want you getting hurt."

"Yes dad, just stop worrying okay? If anyone tries to hurt me I'll just taser them with my phone."

"Oh, you found that setting?"

"Yeah, almost hit Matt with it as well," she chuckled.

"Well, at least I know you can stick up for yourself."

"And I presume you can?"

Tony faked mild offence. "Of course I can stuck up for myself, who do you think I am?" he said.

"Well, I'm glad, because it looks like we're here."

Tony noticed that she was right. In front of the convoy was a large grey building, surrounded by guards and security cameras. It certainly was intimidating. Despite its bland colour, it looked pretty high tech, and Amelia know the technology wouldn't be far off to the kind in Stark Towers. They followed the rest of the vehicles through the gates, where they were directed to park. Once out of the car and into the main office, Amelia was impressed. There was a large glass table in the centre of the table, and surrounding it were screens all over the walls.

Sitting at the table were a bunch of characters Amelia never thought she'd meet. There was a slim red head, an blonde guy with massive muscles, a man with short brown hair and sunglasses, a tall guy with a slightly vintage fashion taste, and the one person in the room that she knew besides Tony, Bruce. As soon as Tony entered they looked up, but once their eyes lay sight on Amelia their expression changed.

"Stark, who is that?" the redhead asked, slightly concerned.

"Natasha, everyone, this is my daughter," he said slowly. The whole room went silent and the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Amelia just looked at their expressions, said a quick "hi", before walking over to sit in the chair next to Bruce, who smiled at her. In truth, she was slightly amused by everyone reactions to Tony Stark having a daughter, and she was trying hard to keep a straight face.

"Daughter?" the vintage one asked.

"Yeah. Amelia, hi," the teenager said, giving a nonchalant wave.

"Pepper and I decided to adopt," Tony said. "She's with me because Pepper's away for a week on business."

"Well, greetings, daughter of Stark!" The blonde one boomed. He got up and went to shake her hand, introducing himself. "I am Thor Odinson."

"Em, hello Thor," she said, smiling back at him. The rest began to introduce themselves.

"Miss Stark, I'm Steve Rodgers."

"Natasha Romanov."

"Clint Barton."

"Well, you know me already," Bruce said.

Amelia was almost overwhelmed. Thor and Steve seemed pretty please to meet her, yet Natasha and Clint seemed worried. She guessed it was because of her young age, they maybe didn't think it was safe for her to be there. But nonetheless, they all smiled at her. She wasn't as intimidated as she thought she'd be; they didn't seem like super heroes to her, they just seemed like normal people.

"Yeah, well now that we've had our little meet and greet, why'd you call us here?" Tony asked Fury, taking a seat next to Steve.

"I called you all here, because we have detected a threat, a threat that we don't think we can handle," Fury said.

"Don't tell me it's Loki again" Natasha said, taking a quick glance at Clint.

"Loki?" Amelia whispered to Bruce.

"Oh, Thor's crazy brother who brought in the aliens to New York. I kinda did a number on him," Bruce whispered back, explaining to her.

"Really? I'd loved to have seen that," she grinned.

"Believe me, I don't think you would."

"Excuse me, when you two are done gossiping," Fury told the pair, clearing his throat. "No, it's not Loki. It's an unknown force, something we've never met before. We think its linked to the Extremis.

Tony's eyes shot up. The Extremis, the thing that had put Pepper in danger. Krillian was dead, there was no doubt about that, but was there someone else using the same thing?

"It doesn't seem to be the same serum, but these people have all been scientifically changed," Fury told them, sending images and formulas on the screen. "There have been 3 cases we've picked up on; one in China, one in Ireland, and one in Finland. All three cases have had inhuman powers, and we believe it's an organisation trying to replicate the Extremis serum."

"So what do we do? I thought S.H.E.I.L.D was handling it?" Natasha questioned.

"We were, but it's getting out of even our control. We need The Avengers to track down whoever is doing this, and put a stop to it," Fury said, more images coming up on the screens. "Stark, we've decided to base the operation at Stark Towers. With the Arc Reactor our technology can work a lot faster and more efficiently."

"Wait, you just _decided_? Didn't you think to ask me first?" Tony retaliated.

"We presumed you would agree, Stark. We didn't know at the time that you had a daughter," Fury explained.

Tony sat there, thinking of what he was to do. If he agreed they would get the job done much faster, but he had to think about Amelia. Would setting up at Stark Towers put her in danger? Possibly, but then again if the Avengers were all there it wouldn't be too hard to protect her.

"Fine, you can set up at the tower," he sighed. Amelia smiled; this meant that she'd see Bruce more often, as well as the rest of the group.

"Good. We'll be setting up tonight if you don't mind; the quicker the better," Fury nodded, walking towards the door. "I just hope you can play nice with the others."

* * *

"Wow, the Avengers are a varied bunch," Amelia said, flicking through information on one of S.H.E.I.L.D's tablets. Fury had given it to her to get her up to speed on the Avengers and who they were. No classified information, just the basics. "It still amazes me how Bruce is alive though. I saw how much Gamma radiation was given off, its a miracle he survived that."

"I know, that's what I told him," Tony said. They were back at the tower, watching people go back and forth with boxes of electronics and equipment. "And Amelia, are you sure you're okay with all this? I know you go on your summer holidays next week, so you'll be at home a lot, and I don't want to go through with this if you don't want it."

"I'm fine with it dad, trust me," she said, sighing as she put the tablet down. "It'll be fun to have a tower full of super heroes."

"I don't want you getting into any trouble, okay?"

"Yes dad." Amelia rolled her eyes again. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have homework to finish."

She weaved through the mass of people going back and forth, trying to get to the kitchen where she'd left her books. When she arrived there, she found the Avengers - minus her father of course - sitting at the table, looking rather bored.

"Hey," she said, walking up to them. She went into a cupboard and pulled out a packet of cookies, grabbing one for herself. She held the packet out to the others. "Anyone want one?"

Thor accepted one gladly, but everyone else just shook their heads. Putting the cookies back, she sat where her books were, picking up her pencil and seeing where she'd left off. It was quiet, the only sounds being herself and Thor munching on their biscuit.

"So, tell me Amelia, how did you and Tony meet?" Clint asked, breaking the silence.

"Huh? Oh, I insulted him," she said, causing a laugh from both him and Natasha.

"That sounds about right," he agreed.

"Tell me Miss, what exactly are you doing?" Steve asked.

"English homework. You guys are honestly so lucky you don't have to do this kinda stuff anymore," she said. Steve chuckled.

"Yeah, but school is the best time of your life. You're learning and you've got all your friends," Clint said.

"Yeah, learning about stuff I'm likely to never use in my life," the teenager retorted.

"You should see the schools on Asgard, they teach you combat," Thor said with a grin.

"Combat? Yeah, sounds pretty fun. Better than algebra."

"So what do you want to do once you leave school?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know really. Maybe an engineer, might get a job somewhere within Stark Industries, seeing as my dad owns the whole thing."

"What about S.H.E.I.L.D? You're obviously skilled with technology."

"No, Natasha. You are not recruiting my daughter to be a super spy with S.H.E.I.L.D," Tony said, appearing out of nowhere. "I don't want you putting ideas into her head."

"It's her choice Stark, and I'm only saying that she's a talented girl and her skills could be a valuable asset," Natasha replied, rather angry.

Tony just glared at her, and then looked to his daughter. "Come on kiddo, you can spend time with your new friends tomorrow. You have school in the morning, so you'd better get to bed."

His daughter sighed, picking up all her books and sliding off the chair. "Fine, Night everyone. Night dad."

They all mumbled a good night to her as she walked off, no doubt to end up reading till the small hours of the night. Clint turned to Tony.

"I like her, Stark. She does remind me of you," the archer said. "I think you picked well."

"Well, I'm so glad I have your seal of approval bird brain, but if you'll excuse me i've had a busy day, so I'm going to get a whiskey," Tony said, sighing and walking toward the drinks cupboard.

"He's right Stark, you chose well," Thor added. "I know that being adopted can not always end in happiness, but I see that she truly is your daughter, even if not by blood."

"Thanks thunder head," Tony said as he poured his drink. "Now, I have to be up early tomorrow as well, for the school run. You all know where your rooms are, kitchen is free to cook in if you want, but try not to burn the tower down."

With that he walked off, drink in hand, towards his own room, ready for a night of sleep. He only wished Pepper was by his side.

* * *

"Sir, we have the results for the latest batch of subjects. The effects seem to be lessening," a woman said, handing her boss the papers. She wore a long white lab coat, with her blonde hair tied back.

"Good. Increase the dosage two fold, see how the subjects hold up," a man replied, tall and lean. The woman nodded and left his study, while the man stood at the window, looking out onto the murky skies of London.

"Ah, soon they will arrive no doubt, S.H.E.I.L.D's precious little heroes," the man said to himself, smiling. "Let them come, let them taste the full power that we have created."

"Let them taste the full power of Vortez."


	5. Chapter 5

Amelia woke at 6am, a crashing jolting her from her sleep. At first she was scared, but once her mind woke up she soon remembered that she had the Avengers living in her house, and they'd often spar early in the morning. From the sounds of it, this morning it was Thor and Steve. Sighing, the teenager got out of bed, knowing that any attempts to get back to sleep would be futile. It was first weekend of the summer holidays, she should have been sleeping till at least 10. But instead she just quickly got dressed into an old oversized tshirt and a pair of sweatpants, and followed the noise to lead her to the action.

They were in the gym of course, Tony, Clint and Natasha sitting on the side, while the Captain and the God fought. Thor wasn't using his hammer, per Tony's request, and Steve didn't have his shield. This was hand to hand combat.

"You guys really do make an effective alarm clock," she said, walking into the room in bare feet, still half asleep.

"My apologies, Miss Stark," Thor said, turning away from Steve to face her. "If you would like, we can fight-"

Thor got cut off mid sentence by a punch from Steve, sending him flying. "Never take your eyes off the opponent," Steve told him as he stood back up. "But we are sorry."

"It's fine, I few hours of missed sleep wont do me any harm," Amelia reasoned, amused at Thor's expression from getting caught off guard. "Any closer to finding whoever's doing this?"

"The system is doing a wave scan of as much technology throughout the world as it can handle. It'll take a few hours, but then we'll have a better idea of where they're based," Bruce said, appearing behind Amelia, fresh from the lab downstairs. "I see someone's awake early."

"Blame thunder head and the cap," she said, and Tony smirked at the fact that she was picking up on the nicknames he gave them. "But I have no school for the next few months, and I'm so happy!" Amelia grinned, enjoying the fact that she'd have no school work to do for a while. Bruce smiled at her optimism.

"Well, you're pretty smart so we may need your help," Steve said, he and Thor having finished sparring for the time being. "I'm sure you and your dad can work wonders with all this technology."

"If you want I can teach you how to work a computer, old man," Amelia joked at him, causing him to roll his eyes and chuckle.

"Aren't you supposed to respect your elders?" he said sarcastically.

"Well, you're not so much an elder, more an ancient relic."

"Stark, I swear this kid becomes more like you every day," Natasha said. "Now come on, I'm hungry and I'm pretty sure everyone else is."

The red head walked off, followed by Clint and Thor, and everyone else soon filed after them towards the kitchen. They threw together a cooked breakfast with whatever they could find, but Amelia preferred a bowl of cereal. It was an odd experience to say the least, having a bunch of super heroes around your kitchen table eating breakfast, but they'd been living in the tower for a week and Amelia was pretty used to it. Thor had even offered to_ fly_ her to school one morning, an offer both her and her father declined. There was something worrying her though, something that had been niggling at the back of her head the whole week. She was scared for her dad.

At first it was such a new thing, to be whisked off to a top secret facility and have your dad told that he was needed to stop some scientists and their subjects, but not that it had sunk in she realised just how much danger it could put him, and everyone else in. The thought of just having become part of a real family, only to have that taken away from her if things went wrong during a fight or something. If they found whoever was doing this, and they had to go stop them, when Tony left, flying off in the suit, would that be the last time she would see him? He could put up a good fight, but if anything were to go wrong and cost him or any other of the Avengers their lives, she didn't know how she'd cope. She'd only known the group for a week, but they all seemed to warm to her quite easily, and she enjoyed their company. If any of them were to never return, she didn't know hoe she'd handle it.

"You okay kiddo?" Tony said, snapping Amelia out of her thoughts. "You look a bit preoccupied."

She realised that she'd been sitting there, holding the spoon in front of her and not bothering to move it towards her mouth. Putting the spoon back into the bowl, she sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine dad. Just a bit tired I guess."

"Again, apologies for the early wake up, miss," Steve said, being the gentleman as always.

"No really, it's fine," she told him, while a random thought popped into her head. "Hey, Natasha, I don't suppose you could teach me some combat?"

Tony nearly spat out his eggs. "What? Combat? No, no way. I don't want to put you in any situations when you'll need it, and I don't want you getting hurt," he said defiantly.

"Yeah, I agree. You're too young, and it's dangerous," Natasha agreed, much to Amelia's surprise. But when her dad got up to pour himself another cup of coffee, she leaned over and whispered "If you can get your dad out of the place, I'll happily teach you some stuff."

Amelia grinned. "Dad," she said, nonchalantly, "what time are you picking mom up from the airport today?"

"In an hour or so. I'll probably be a while though, traffic at that time can be really bad," he replied, not picking up on his daughters plans. Amelia looked over to Natasha, who gave a slight nod and a smile. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason, just wondering when I get to see her again. Does she know you've got the rest of the Avengers staying with us?" she asked.

"No, not yet. I was going to brief her on it on the way home. If I'm driving she can't hit me without risk of crashing," he said, placing his mug back on the table.

"I like that reasoning," Clint commented, before returning to his food. Amelia got up and emptied the uneaten cereal into the bin, while Natasha mouthed to her behind Tony's back to meet her in the gym once her dad had left.

Amelia decided that it was going to be a good day.

* * *

"Bye dad!" Amelia called when her dad left. As soon as he was in the elevator she was dashing through the hallways to the gym, where she was met by Natasha, Clint, and Thor. "Dad's gone," she told them.

"Great. Now, what kind of stuff do you want to learn?" Natasha asked her. "Hand to hand, Judo, knife skills?"

"Em, a bit of hand to hand, maybe some knife skills some other time," she replied, excited for the little secret training session.

"Alright, I'll start with the basics. The first thing you need to learn before you go throwing punches is how to block," Natasha told her. "Without the ability to block you'd be dead before you'd be able to land a single hit."

And so they began the lesson. It lasted about an hour, and was mostly Amelia blocking hits from Natasha and Clint. Eventually though, she got to throw some punches. Natasha commented on her being strong for her age, and was impressed that she actually managed to land a few punches on Clint. However, in the process of landing those few hits, she received too many to count. They weren't sore, they both made sure to be reasonable, but they still knocked her back. Eventually though, she was all tired out, and called an end to the training.

"I'm impressed, young one," said Thor, who'd been sitting watching. "Your strength is admirable for one so small."

"Yeah, I could _totally_ lift that hammer of yours," she said with a smile, sarcastically.

"I would like to see you try, little one."

"I'm not little, you're just like the size of a building."

Thor chuckled, amused by their back and forth. Out of all the people staying with them, Amelia found Thor as a bit of an Uncle figure, and he seemed to really enjoy spending time with her.

"Alright kid, you'd better go clean up before your dad gets home," Clint said. It was true, she was covered in sweat and her hair was a mess.

"Yeah, try to act like you haven't just taught his daughter how to right hook someone," she told him as she left, heading towards her room. She figured that Tony wouldn't be back for another 15 minutes or so, so she grabbed a quick shower to get rid of the sweat. When she came out and threw on a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt, she was informed by JARVIS that both he and Pepper were home.

"Mom!" Amelia said, walking into the room and waving at Pepper.

"Hey sweetie, how're you?" she asked back.

"I'm good. Em, did dad tell you the news?"

"Yes, he did," she said with an expression that let Amelia know that she wasn't quite sure how to react. "Are you okay with it?"

"Yeah, I'm fine with it. Plus, they make for good company. I like Thor, he's pretty cool, and I might end up helping Bruce in the lab."

Pepper turned to Tony with a worried look on her face. She didn't say anything, but Amelia could tell that Pepper was worrying about her, about how involved she was getting and about what would happen if things got dangerous. Tony dismissed it with a wave of his hand, trying to tell her that it would all be okay, but he himself wasn't too certain about that fact either.

"I'm gonna go see how Bruce is coming along with the technology sweep," Amelia said, leaving her parents on their own. She turned corners to get to the lab, and when she arrived there she found Bruce squinting over a monitor.

"Hey, any luck?" she asked, walking up behind him. He looked up to see her, and smiled while taking off his glasses.

"No, not yet. It's 79% done, but we'll need it finished before we get any definitive location," he explained, pointing to a monitor in front of him. "I heard you convinced someone to give you some fighting practice."

"Please don't tell dad, he'd go mental, both at me and Natasha," she asked him.

"It's fine, I never intended to. I think it's good you're learning to fend for yourself," he assured.

"I've lived in an orphaned nearly my entire life, I can fend for myself easily," she mumbled, remembering the days of bullying at school, the taunts that got thrown at her for being from the orphanage. Matt was a godsend, having met him nearly 5 years ago, and he honestly helped her through the toughest of times. She made a mental note to invite him over sometime soon.

"You've had a tough life, haven't you," Bruce said, placing a caring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, it gets better."

"I've met you lot, so it already has," she said, smiling. He chuckled, and went back to the screen in front of him. Amelia admired him, the amount of self control he had was amazing. She'd seen the footage of his incident in the files she'd been given by Fury, and in all honesty she didn't believe it was the same person at first. He might have a terrible side, she thought to herself, but doesn't everybody?

* * *

Amelia sat in the top floor lounge, sprawled across the comfy sofa, flicking thought the tv channels, with Steve and Tony on the other couch. To her dismay there was no Doctor Who on at the time, something she'd really wanted to show Steve, so she was reduced to seeing if anything else good was on. Coming across some Star Trek: The Original Series, she went to press it when Bruce's voice sounded.

"Tony," he said through the speakers, "We've found something. You and everyone else had better get down here."

Tony and Steve were away in a flash, and Amelia sighed while running after them. She was last in the lab, and she took a seat on an empty table beside Thor, who gave her a small smile as a silent hello.

"The sweep seems to have worked. Judging by the data we collected during the whole thing, we can pinpoint the location of operations to London."

"London?" Natasha asked, a bit dismayed. "Well, I suppose it's a change from New York."

"We're trying to get a more precise location, but it's difficult. We're encountering firewalls and blocks that even we can't crack," Bruce explained, typing something into the screen.

"So what do we do? Just sit here while we wait for a location?" Steve asked.

"I'm afraid so, Cap," Tony said, patting him on the shoulder and turning around to walk out. "Give me a shout if you find anything else Bruce."

Everyone else proceeded to leave, and as Amelia walked put the door she turned to look at a map of London that sat on the screen. She was scared again, she realised, scared for the lives of the people she'd grown fond off over the past week or so. She only hoped that the danger would all be over soon.


	6. Chapter 6

"Miss Amelia, your father has requested that you wake up," JARVIS said, walking the teenager from her sleep. She mumbled a reply to the AI, telling him to tell her dad that she was up. Stretching, she got out of her bed and threw on whatever clothes she could find, presuming her dad needed to see her as he didn't normally send her a wake up call. Once dressed she asked JARVIS where Tony was, to which he replied with "In the Lab with the Avengers."

When she arrived in the lab she saw that the AI had been right, they were all there, and all with particularly worried expressions. They all turned to her as she walked in, and seeing some of the toughest people she knew all look worried made her feel uneasy. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"There's been another case, this one an attack," Natasha said, nodding towards a screen that they were all watching. Amelia looked and saw what she meant; reports were coming in from across the globe about a presumed terrorist attack in Malta. From what she could tell there had been a sudden explosion in the middle of a town centre, and many had been injured or killed.

"How do you know it's what we're looking for though?"

"Because this is exactly what was happening with the Extremis, expect this seems to be a little more docile," Bruce explained, putting up pictured of the explosion site. The wreckage was bad, but agreeable it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

"So what now? You guys got a location yet?" Amelia asked, now worried as well.

"No, we're no where closer than we were before," Tony said, letting out an exasperated sigh. "We're got all this technology and still we can't find more than a general area. London is massive, we can't just go searching there by hand."

"Well, you obviously need an extra pair of hands for this, so I don't care what you say dad, I'm helping out in any way I can," she said assertively. "You guys are the nest minds out there, and you're pushing yourselves to the limit. You guys might need your strength for a fight if it gets serious, so from now on I'm helping. Okay?"

Tony was slightly taken aback by his daughters assertiveness, but he was too exhausted to argue. Plus, he knew she was right, they needed all the help they could get. "Sure, you can help," he agreed. "But don't go getting into trouble."

"Stark, I'm pretty sure she'll be able to take care of herself," Natasha assured him. "She's tough, just like her dad."

"Yeah. Anyone comes near me I'll just taser them, remember?" she said to her dad, and he chuckled.

"Alright. Since you've offered to help I don't want any slacking off, okay kiddo? Now come on, I've got a job for you."

"Yes sir!" she said, giving a mock salute. Steve chuckled slightly, and she followed her dad to the other end of the lab, towards one of the computers.

"Alright, I need you to do a London sweep and try and break through any particularity odd looking firewalls. Please don't go prying through MI5, I really don't think they'd appreciate it, but anything that looks suspicious, okay?" he told her, bringing up some software.

"Yeah, I can do that easy enough," she nodded, taking a seat and typing away, getting to work. She enjoyed this, she felt like she was a help to the team, rather than a hindrance. Setting up the requirements to leave out basic computer firewalls, she imputed strings of code in attempts to create a bug that could get through the tough ones. They'd had no luck getting through them so far, but she was willing to give anything a try.

Hours past and she was getting hungry, but she didn't want to leave her post. Someone must have realised this, as Thor appeared by her side with a plate full of PBJ sandwiches. She nodded her thanks before stuffing her face with the delicious food. Thor laughed his booming laugh.

"You would make a good Asgardian, young one," he told her with the biggest grin on his face. "You have the appetite of a true warrior."

"Or just a hungry teenager," she said back, laughing at his compliment. "and really, a true warrior? Oh yeah, I can picture that; running around the battle field with a sword and shield in hand. Yeah, totally me."

"I have a friend who I think you would get along with, her name is Sif," he told her. "She defied all others by proving that a maiden could be one of Asgard's finest warriors."

"Good for her, show then it doesn't matter what gender you are, you can still kick ass," she agreed, stuffing another sandwich into her mouth.

"Yes, you two would indeed get along well. Maybe one day you could meet."

"What, you mean go to Asgard? How does that even work?," she asked. "I remember doing Norse myths in school when I was about 9 years old, I remember stuff about Thor and Loki and Odin and Frigga, but that's about it. Oh, and Valhalla."

"Yes, many centuries ago people of this world worshipped us as gods," he nodded. "And yes, I think you would enjoy Asgard. We would use the Bifrost. It's a giant rainbow bridge, a gateway to the other 8 realms."

"Sounds fun, travelling between worlds. I imagine it would be like a very intense roller-coaster ride," the teenager shrugged. "I'd love to go, but you'd have to convince my dad first."

"Ah, that is where the trouble lies," Thor laughed, giving her a friendly pat on the back.

"Help yourself to a sandwich if you want. Have you ever tried PBJ?"

"No, I do not believe I have. Thank you," Thor said, picking up one and taking a curious bite, followed by a nod of approval and proceeding to devour it within seconds. "You have many delicious foods here on Midgard."

"Yeah, we do. Thanks for bringing me food, I was getting really hungry."

"It is no problem at all, little one. Are you making any progress?"

"A little bit. I made a code to try and sift through the firewalls, and it seems to have worked, so now I've just gotta try and look for the suspicious ones and try and pin a location on them," she explained, while Thor nodded, only slightly understanding all the computer talk. "Basically it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

"You have done well, I think you deserve a break," Thor said. "Your father has gone out for a few hours, and Romanov was wondering if you'd like another fighting lesson."

Her head lifted with a smile on my face, and she chuckled. Leaving the computer to scan through the firewalls and to notify her if anything popped up, she finished the last sandwich and followed Thor to the gym.

* * *

"Hey, I thought you'd want another lesson," Natasha said when they arrived. Steve was there, along with Clint and Bruce. "So, you want to try some more punches and them move onto some kicks?"

"Yeah, whatever you think is best, you're the expert," Amelia agreed, anxious to get going. Ever since their session a week ago she'd been eager to get backinto it.

"Alright, lets go then. Steve, I might need your help later," she told the cap.

"Em, okay, as long as Amelia says its okay to hit her," he agreed, asking the teenage for confirmation.

"Yeah, you're good old man," Amelia jested, and Steve smiled. "You can hit me all you want, as long as i get to hit back."

"You really do become more like your father every day," Natasha commented light heartedly. "Now, lets start with a little sparring."

Half an hour later Amelia felt beat up and battered, and she was sure she was going to have a bruise on her arm from when she'd swung and Steve and he'd blocked and hit back. As much off a beating she took, she still loved it. Every time she got hit he'd recoil for a second and then have the biggest grin on her face, trying twice as hard as before. And it paid off, she got more hits than last time, even with Steve. But they were finished with the punches, and now it was time to move into kicks.

"Now, you need good balance if you want to kick hard," Natasha told her while the teenage sat on the training matt, sweat dripping from her forehead. "If your balance is off then this happens. Clint, care to help?"

Clint looked at Natasha suspiciously, but did as he was asked and stood up, getting into a fighting stance. He went for a kick, and Natasha simply moved out of the way, grabbed his leg and had him on the floor within seconds. Amelia looked on in disbelief.

"Yeah, that happens," Clint groaned, getting up off the floor and returning to his seat while Bruce and Thor chuckled.

"As you can see, balance is everything. So, we need to see how good your balance is."

She led Amelia over to a large but quite thin metal beam, about a meter off the ground. The Agent got up onto it and walked across it like it was normal flooring. She made it look so easy, Amelia thought she couldn't possible do it.

"Now it's your turn. Here I'll give you a leg up," she said, helping the teenager up onto the beam. Amelia was instead at first, but once she was still she was fine. "Now, just take it slow, it's not a race."

"Okay..," she mumbled, not confident that her balance would prevent her from falling. With her arms stretched out by her side, he took a few hasty steps, before noticing that it was quite easy. With a small grin she quickened the pace, she cleared the beam perfectly. "How was that?"

"Really good actually, I was right when I said you'd make a good S.H.E.I.L.D agent," Natasha nodding, impressed. "Alright, so you've obviously got good balance, but we need to see how powerful your legs are. Try and kick me."

Amelia got down and back onto the training mats with her instructor, and launched a kick at her as strongly as she could. Natasha caught it, not blocking, just making sure she could tell how powerful the kick was.

"Not bad," she told her, "but you've got to remember to put all the power into your legs, not your foot."

Amelia nodded, and the training began again. Kicks were flying everywhere, and one time Amelia ended up on the floor, flipped on her side. Thor had stood up and started rallying for her when that happened, which boosted her spirits and got her back up again. By the time it was all over, both her and Natasha were exhausted, but she was gratified that she'd made big progress.

"You fight very well, you would fit in well in Asgard!" Thor proclaimed as she sat down next to him, her muscles aching. He gave here a heartening slap on the back, and she sighed as she felt exhaustion wash over her. She swore she only closed her eyes for a few seconds, but the last thing she remembered before waking up on top of her bed was someone, probably Thor, picking her up and carrying her.


	7. Chapter 7

"Remember, slash with the knife, don't just stab," Natasha told Amelia. They were having one of their secret training session - secret only to Tony and Pepper - but this time it was just them in the gym, the others were all at S.H.E.I.L.D HQ, including Pepper at Tony's request, so it was just the two of them in the building. "Good, like that. Try fitting in a kick somewhere, that'll knock your opponent back a bit."

"How much longer? I'm having fun and all, but I'm exhausted," Amelia asked, groaning from the pain that had been caused by a particularly painful kick in the stomach in an earlier session. It was now the 3rd week of her summer holidays, and nothing special had happened in the case of the serum. Fury had called everyone to HQ to brief them on something, and Natasha had volunteered to stay back with Amelia, telling everyone else that whatever it is, she can catch up on it later. And so the pair ended up in the gym again, this time practising knife work. They'd been at it for a good while now, and the 15 year old was shattered.

"Fine, we'll stop here. You're making really good progress, especially for someone of your age," The agent praised, taking back the knife they were practising with. "You want to grab a shower and they I'll make us some lunch?"

"Yeah, sure. I wont be too long," Amelia said, leaving Natasha and heading for her bedroom. Once there she quickly got out of her sweaty clothes and got in the shower, the hot water waking her up a bit and soothing the pain from the training. She was in the middle of washing her hair when JARVIS spoke up.

"Miss Amelia, the tower has been breached. Protocol 55-YA is in activation. Please exit the shower and put on clothes quickly." The AI said, startling the teenager.

"Breached? JARVIS what do you mean?" she said in a panic, shutting off the water and wrapping herself in a towel.

"An unknown assailant has breached the tower. They are at the lower levels at the moment. Once dressed, quickly go to meet Miss Romanov in the gym," he informed her. Amelia took a deep breath, calming herself, and exited the bathroom to get dressed. Once that was done, she hastily made her way to the gym to meet Natasha.

"Amelia, are you okay?" she asked once Amelia arrived.

"Yeah, I'm fine. JARVIS said someone's got into the tower," she nodded.

"Yeah. They've blown in through the garage, but the systems are holding them off for now. We need to get out of here."

"What? No,_ they_ need to get out of there. Surly we can drive them out?"

"I appreciate the thought, but there's at least fifty of them. There's two of us," Natasha shook her head. "We can set the building to lock down, so they cant access any other levels once we're out, but we have to go."

"Okay, just make sure they don't get into any of the labs. Without them we're hopeless in finding this serum." she agreed.

"Alright, now we'll have to go out through ground floor, as that way we can lock down each floor as we go. I don't want it to come to this, but we might need to use force. You've got no training with firearms, so I'm giving you a knife. Stay close to me, keep quiet, and remember your training."

Amelia nodded, taking the knife that she was given. It was sharp, with a slim blade, and it felt quite comfortable in her hand. Natasha signalled for them to get going, and she followed the agent down towards the intruders.

* * *

Amelia had never been so scared in her entire life. Not when she'd been viewed at the orphanage, not when she's been threatened by people at school. This was the most terrified she'd ever been.

Her palms were hot and sweaty, but she kept a good grip on the knife, seeing it as a sort of safeguard. As long as she had that knife, she could fight and win, that was her reasoning. She kept telling herself that, but still she was scared. Natasha noticed, and stopped for a second in a corridor.

"Amelia, look at me. You are going to be okay. We're going to get out of here, find your dad and the rest of them, and then clear these guys out," she told her, trying to calm the teenager. Amelia nodded, a little better now that she'd been reassured. But even Natasha's promises seemed impossible. "Now come on. The're on the next level, so we'll have to be careful. Follow me and stay down."

Amelia nodded again, afraid to make a sound. They were going down the stairwells, as the lifts would be like telling them they were there in the first place. Once down to the next floor the stairwell stopped, so they had to get out and go down a separate one. Carefully peering around the door, Natasha scanned the area for any signs of life. Seeing none, she took Amelia gently by the wrist, taking her along as she snuck past doors and corridors. Suddenly Amelia heard the sound of a gun being cocked.

"You! Freeze!" the man holding the weapon said. He was behind them, and going by his slightly muffled voice, was wearing a mask or balaclava. Natasha turned ever so slightly to Amelia, telling her to move out of the way, and as soon as she did so the agent was back flipping through the air, avoiding gunfire, and landing low near the guard. She swept his legs from out underneath him, causing him to fall flat on his back. Natasha took he gun and swiftly drove the butt of the weapon down onto his head, rendering him unconscious. She turned to the teenager she was protecting.

"You okay?" she hastily asked her, taking the opponents gun and rounds of bullets. Amelia gave a quick nod, and Natasha took her wrist again, this time being more careful to avoid the enemy. They got down three more floors before they encountered anyone else. They had turned a corner when three of the has appeared. Natasha was taking out one, but the second went for Amelia with a knife. Remembering her training, she dodged swiftly, twisting his arm so he dropped the knife, and kicked his legs so he fell to the ground. She didn't want to slash a him though, for fear that he may die. As much as he had just tried to kill her, she wasn't ready to have any blood on her hands. So instead she copied Natasha from earlier, taking the butt of the knife handle, slamming it down hard, and causing him to fall to the floor in unconscious slump. Just as she did this she heard Natasha's opponent fall to the floor as well.

"Amelia, get out of the w- oh, you took care of that one," she said, slightly surprised. "Good work, now come on before any more get here. We're nearly down to the main lobby level, which is where most of them are. I think they're ransacking the offices."

"They'll be trying to get into the computer mainframe, shut down the security systems. We need to get down there and out before they can do that," Amelia told her. "If they get into the mainframe that means they can get control of the whole tower, including sequrity cameras. They'd be able to see out every move."

"Yeah, like I said, we'd better get going."

Amelia nodded, accepting the ordered and following quickly. They made it down to the lobby without any further encounters, but now they lay hidden behind a stairwell door, trying to figure out a way to sneak past alteast 40 guards with guns and knives.

"You know to workings of this place kid, any other exits?" Natasha asked.

"Not that we can get to safely with that lot around, and we need to stop them before they gain access to the compu-"

Amelia stopped dead in her tracks, looking up and slightly smiling at Natasha. "I know exactly what to do," she said, pulling out her phone. She knew it had the same interface at the towers systems, and the small remote controlled cameras she'd made for Tony's suit were still linked. Tapping away at the screen, she sent command to the drones, and simultaneously they switched themselves on in the lab.

"I'll have to fly them out and back in through a window, as the levels are locked down, but it should still work. Two of the, should be enough.." she said, concentrating on coding and commands.

"What are you doing?" Natasha asked, confused.

"Well, I made these little drones, built to be part of dads suit. They're like remote controlled cameras, except they can scan, pick up items, and project," she explained to the redhead. "Of I can set up a mock program to make it look as of they've broken through to the mainframe, then stream the image of a projected image of us looking like its from the security cameras on one of the high up floors, they'll head straight for us. The lifts are dead, but they'll take the stairwells. We should be fine in this one, it's pretty well hidden, but one by the main office is in plain sight."

"That's... really clever, Amelia," Natasha nodded, agreeing that the plan would work. The teenager worked on the codes for the mock program, and having the cameras and projections ready, she sent it away.

Outside there was shouting, and sure enough the stomp of boots up the stairwell. By the time the stampede had faded there was only five or six guards left, and Natasha was confident she could take them all out. The teenager by her side, they lept put of the hidden door, Natasha launching herself towards the first guard. She'd told Amelia to stay low, but the teenager refused to stand by and do nothing to help, so she ran to the left, kicking down an armed guard. She succeeded in this feat, but soon two more were upon her, and she was struggling against them. One grabbed the knife from her hand and threw it to the floor, the other held his own blade to her throat. In that moment she was prepared to die, to never see her father or mother or any of her friends ever again, but a loud thud stopped that.

"Amelia!" Natasha yelled, punching the guard wielding the knife square in the jaw. In her panic as hastyness to rescue to girl, she herself had gotten surrounded. She kept pushing Amelia towards the door though, even then.

"Go, get out of here! Go find your dad, I'll be fine!" she yelled ordered to Amelia, whom she shoved through the front glass doors. Amelia was on the ground, and shook her head as she knew exactly what the agent was about to do.

"Natasha, no!" she cried, but it was too late. The orders had already been given.

"JARVIS, lock down the entire buildinging! Nothing gets in or out!" Natasha yelled to the AI, who promptly responded to her command. Steel shutters slammed down, 8 inches thick metal, but not before Natasha got a chance to yell at the girl to run, run as far as she could. And Amelia could do nothing else but obey.

* * *

She had obeyed. She'd ran all through New York, not even sure of her location herself anymore, and she ended up huddled at the end of an alleyway, gasping for breath, when she started to break down in tears. Natasha was stuck, probably getting tortured, all because she'd been reckless and hadn't done what she was told and stayed low. The whole situation came crashing down on her, and her low sobs continued. Because of her, Natasha could be dead. Because of her, she'd possibly lost a great friend. Because of her the plan had failed.

Not knowing what to do, she pulled out her phone, calling up her dad. It only rang once before a worried Tony Stark picked up.

"Amelia! Oh my god are you okay? It says here the towers on lockdown, are you out? Is Natasha okay?" he stammered, so relieved to hear from his daughter.

"I'm fine dad," she said through sobs. "I got out thanks to Natasha, but.. she's stuck in there. She sacrificed herself for me and put the whole place on deadlock so nobody can get in or out. I'm sorry dad, I messed up."

"Shhhh, you didn't mess up. Look, I've go your location from the phone, we're coming to get you. Just stay put till we get there," he said, the emotion seeping through on his voice. "Don't worry, it's all okay."

"O-okay dad," she wheezed, the crying getting the better of her, and hung up. They'd no doubt be there in less than five minutes, so all she did was curls up in a ball against the wall and sob into her arms as her knees were tucked into her chest. Everything that had just happened, everything that went right, was all for. Naught due to her stupid mistake. A bottomless pit started to open up in her stomach, full of dread and hopelessness.

"Amelia!" she heard her dads voice call, and sure enough there he was, standing at the end of the ally in front of a large black car. Amelia sped towards him, throwing herself at him as he hugged her reassuringly, quietly repeating to her that it was all okay. He patted her back softly, and tears started to form in his own eyes.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he said, eyes watery. She just sobbed into his shoulder even more, and he took her into the back of the car with him as the driver drove them back to the large grey building where she'd first met the other Avengers. Except this time they were one short.

As soon as she was inside, she was escorted to a room, bright and simple with a surprisingly soft bed. Tony didn't let her out of his sight the whole where there, but when Fury called him up to the briefing room he had to leave her.

"I have to go, I'm sorry, but you'll be okay. The guards outside will direct you to anywhere you need to go," he told her. "I love you."

He planted a kiss on her forehead, leaving her alone in the room to sit in silence. She collapsed onto the bed, the exhaustion from the training session and the fighting finally seeping in, and she fell into a deep sleep, the only thing waking her being a dream of Natasha's voice, screaming in agony.

And in Amelia's head it was all her fault.


	8. Chapter 8

When Amelia woke up, she wished she hadn't. The few moments of blissful ignorance when her eyes first opened was soon washed over by the pain that came with the memory of what had happened. She groaned, and just the sound of her own voice echoing around the room bringing her a headache. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry, as the last few moments at the tower ran through her head. Natasha's face as she'd ordered the lock down, the look in her eyes as she realised there was no hope for her. She was in there now, being tortured or even dead, and it was all Amelia's fault.

She heard the door open, and in stepped her father. She looked up at him, seeing the care and love in his eyes, and it pushed her over the limit as she burst into tears. Tony rushed over to her, embracing her and telling her that it was all okay, and that it wasn't his fault. She couldn't stop crying to argue with him, so she sat there, sobbing into his shoulder. She felt horrible, and weak, and insignificant. Because of her, she's cost someone their life.

"Honey, it's all okay, we'll get her out of there," Tony assured her quietly. "Plus, she'll be fine. She's trained to deal with that sort of situation."

"But I let her, I should have..," Amelia tried, but it just brought on more tears. She couldn't even begin to imagine what Natasha was going through.

"Shhh, It'll all be all-right, trust me. Now come one, how about we go see the rest of them?" Tony asked, wiping tears off her face. "They were all really worried about you."

She nodded, grasping at the chance to get out of the bare, white room. She was still in the same clothes from earlier that day, and they stunk of sweat and dust, but she didn't dare ask for some fresh clothes. She was too scared they'd recoil at her for letting one of their top agents get captured.

Tony took her hand, and they walked up to the briefing room. They passed guards who care curt nods as they went, but Amelia saw pity in many of their eyes. Obviously what happened at Stark tower hadn't gone unheard. But Amelia didn't want their pity, she felt she didn't deserve it.

When they arrived in the briefing room, all eyes were on her. Steve's looked worried, Thor's looked pitiful, but Clint's were unreadable. She knew him and Natasha were close, and she didn't have the courage to look him in the eye. Fury, for once, looked pitiful as well, and Bruce just walked up and gave her a reassuring hug. It was obvious to her that they all wanted to ask her questions, that they all wanted to know what happened, but all of them were afraid to mention in, in fear of hurting her. Sitting down, she wondered why she'd been blessed to know such kind and caring people.

"How do you feel, young one?" Thor asked, breaking the silence.

"Tired, I guess," he said, not being fully truthful. _Useless, unworthy, stupid, _that was what she wanted to say.

"Please, do not blame yourself for what happened today. It was not your fault," he added. Amelia didn't have the energy to argue, so she just looked down at the table.

"Amelia, I know you've had a rough day, but we need to know what happened," Fury said, softer than normal. Amelia nodded, and began her story.

"I was in my room when JARVIS told me that someone was in the tower, and he told me where to meet Natasha. So I met up with her, and we made a plan to deadlock the building floor by floor as we went down. We met a few guards, but not many. I was able to fend them of with the knife and-"

"Hang on, a knife? Why the hell did you have a knife?" Tony burst out, shocked. "You don't know how to use a knife!"

The rest of the Avengers looked at each other, feeling guilty for keeping the training a secret from her dad. "Dad, Natasha and I have been training a few times. Just hand-to-hand combat, a bit of knife work. I didn't tell you because I thought you'd freak," she explained meagrely.

"She's been training you? What, so you can become an Agent like her?" Tony shouted, getting angry.

"No, I just asked her to teach me a few things. I though it'd be fun-"

"Fun? Training you to become a ruthless killer isn't fun Amelia! I've half a mind to-"

"Dad, if it wasn't for her training with me I wouldn't have gotten out of that tower! If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be hear at all! Natasha is the only reason that I am still alive!" Amelia yelled, loosing her temper. The whole room went silent, and Amelia shrunk back. "I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be, I was over reacting," Tony said with a sigh. "Just, finish off your story."

Nodding shyly, she continued. "We got to one of the lobby stairwells, and they were trying to get into the computer system. So I sent out the little drone bots made, and I got them to put a fake program up, making it look like they got through, and showing an image of us on one of the floors. The plan worked, and most of them ran up to go get us. Natasha started to take care of the rest, but I got in the way trying to help and..."

Amelia couldn't hold it in any more, and the tears silently ran down her cheek. Bruce, who was sitting next to her, took her in his arms, and gave her another comforting hug.

"Thank you Amelia, that was all we needed," Fury said again, still softly. "Stark, see if you can get into the computer system at Stark tower, check if they're still in there. Banner, you go help him. The rest of you stay here with her."

Both Bruce and Tony left, followed shortly by Fury, so soon it was just Amelia, the Norse god, the capsicle, and the hawk. She still couldn't look Barton in the eye.

"Clint, I'm so sorry, I was stupid, and I should have followed orders and-" she tried to apologise.

"Amelia, I don't want to hear it. You know why?" he said, softly. "Because it was not your fault. I don't want you blaming yourself for something that wasn't your fault."

"But I- I should have stayed back instead of trying to fight.." Amelia mumbled.

"No. You tried to fight, and I'm proud. I'm proud of you for staving your fears and trying to help Natasha. I'm proud, your dad is proud, we're all proud. And Natasha would be proud as well." Clint finished, smiling at her.

Amelia smiled back, smiling for the first time since she'd woken up. It must have been late at night, as the shy outside was nearly pitch black, but she had no doubt they'd all be working late into the night.

"Miss Amelia, do you wish to return to your room and rest?" Thor asked her.

"No. I fought in the tower, and I'll fight here. I'll help as best I can, but I'm not leaving you guys to do this on your own." She told him, her heart having lifted after Clint's little speech.

"You're a fighter, Miss," Steve said, "Don't ever loose your spirit."

Amelia nodded, as Thor and Clint agreed with him. They all looked at Amelia, and they all thought to themselves that this 15 year old girl, whom they'd only known for just over a month, was one of the bravest people they'd ever met. They all knew none of them would have fought as she did at her age.

* * *

"Amelia?" Tony said, snapping his daughter out of her sleepy state. She'd been sat down, leaning on one arm, and her eyelids had begun to droop. "You sure you don't want to go back to bed? It's okay, I don't mind."

"Hmm? Oh, nah I'll be fine. I'll get a coffee or something," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Honey, you don't drink coffee," Tony reminded her.

"Well, there's a first time to try everything. I'm gonna go get a cup, do you want anything?"

"Yeah, just black with sugar. Bruce, you want a coffee?"

"Nah, I'm fine thanks," Bruce replied from the other end of the lab. Amelia nodded and went to retrieve the hot drinks. Heading to the canteen within the base, she passed through mainly empty corridors, but she stopped when she heard voices from inside one of the rooms. Curiosity overpowered her, and she stuck her ear to the door.

"...not in there any more. They must have moved her somewhere else," someone said, and Amelia recognised the voice as Fury's.

"Then where is she? Do we have a location, anything at all?" another voice joined in, this time belonging to Clint.

"I'm sorry Barton, but all the information we had was in that tower, and they took that with them when they left," Fury said bluntly.

"Then what are we supposed to do? You called us all back here for a debriefing, but look what happened! Natasha is gone, captured and probably being tortured somewhere, and we have to start from scratch," Clint said, his tone of voice getting angry.

"Agent Barton, I am aware of the circumstances," Fury told him dryly. "Repeating them wont help. We have Stark and Banner looking though the towers computer system, trying to recover anything. Agent Romanov sacrificed herself to get Stark's daughter out alive, and we will not put that sacrifice to waste. We _will_ find her Barton."

Amelia suddenly heard footsteps coming towards the door, and she realised that she was in a particularly long corridor with nowhere to hide. Through her panic, it was too late to move before the door opened.

"You can come in now, Amelia," Fury said, opening the door and letting her in. "You really think I wouldn't be aware of a little eaves dropper around here?"

"I-uh.. just wondered if either of you wanted a coffee?" Amelia said, using the first excuse that came to mind. Clint just laughed.

"I'll have a latte," Clint said, smiling at her softly. "And don't worry, Fury's right. We will find her." Amelia nodded.

"Anything for you, sir?" she asked Fury, feeling slightly cocky.

"I'll have an Irish coffee, but I'll get it myself as they wont give it to you, being under age and all," Fury sighed, walking out of the room.

"Nice recovery there," Clint commented on her excuse.

"I try my best," she said with a smile. "I'll bring your coffee to the briefing room, I may as well go and ask if the other two want anything."

Clint nodded, and she left him. She'd went to the briefing room to find Steve and Thor, and both of them asked for coffee. She also asked the guards going around if they wanted anything, feeling rather useful for once that day, and soon she was carrying three trays stacked on top of each other, full of paper cups of hot drinks.

"Hey guys, I'm back with coffee," she said, knocking on the door of the briefing room. Turns out they were all there now, Tony and Bruce included, and they were all debating over something.

"It's a small lead, but a lead none the less," Bruce was saying when she entered. "Oh, hello Amelia."

"Um, hey, I brought the coffee.." she said, wondering what they were all talking about. She placed the trays on the table and handed everyone their cups. "What's happening?"

"We've managed to recover some information from the tower, including that program you were running. We've got 3 leads, but we don't know if they're the real thing," Tony explained. "Whoever was in that tower wanted everything erased. They didn't take take anything, simply destroyed it. They've corrupted the system, but it's a basic virus so we were able to recover a few things."

"So you're deciding whether to go in on these leads or wait?"

"Yes. We don't know the possible risk of sending agents or ourselves in," Steve said.

"We've got a location for one lead, in London, but its difficult to tell how dangerous it would be. They'd recognise an agent any day," Bruce added.

Amelia stopped to think. The cogs in her head began to turn, running the whole thing through her mind over and over and over again. An idea started to form, and that idea turned to a plan, and that plan turned into an action.

"Send me," she said bluntly. Everyone looked at her as if she was mad.

"What? Send you?" Tony said, sceptically. "Are you out of your mind?"

"Dad, think about it. I'm a fifteen year old girl; if they see me wandering around they'll just think I'm a lost kid. I can do a London accent," she explained. "Plus, I don't know about whoever runs the place, but I doubt many of the guards would shoot a young girl."

"But it's far too dangerous. You barely got out of that tower alive, now you want to throw yourself back into the gunfight?" Tony said, shaking his head. "No, I wont let you."

"But dad, this could be our one change to get information, information that could save Natasha. She risked her life for me, now I'm going to do the same thing for her."

"The young one does have a point, Stark," Thor said, "And agent Romanov has taught her well in hand-to-hand combat. She would likely be safe enough."

"I don't want my daughter going in on a potentially deadly threat. What if they get her, huh? What if they capture her as well?" Tony retorted.

"Dad, I'll be fine. I can have a pick up team ready to grab me if anything bad happens, and I'm sure I can get a bit more training with the knife here," his daughter told him. "Dad, trust me on this. I can do this."

Tony sat there, thinking the proposal over. Half of him knew she was strong, and that she could do it, but the other half was full of thoughts of what would happen if she were to get caught. When Pepper was taken from him, he'd fought so hard to get her back. She would do the same for Amelia, even if it cost him his life. He had decided.

"Okay, you can go. But I want you trained to get out of sticky situations, and kitted out with bugs when you go in. I want to be able to know what's going on at all times," he said.

"Yes father," Amelia said back, in an entirely convincing London accent. "I shall get right to it."


	9. Chapter 9

"I still can't believe you're doing this," Clint said to Amelia as they trained. She'd been at S.H.E.I.L.D HQ for just under two weeks, and almost all that time had been spent getting ready for the mission. She'd worked with Clint and Steve mostly, along with some instructors, and she was well adapt at hand-to-hand combat and knife skills, and she had the basic training in handling guns - something she hoped she wouldn't need to use- and the bugs and wire-taps were all ready for her to set up when she got there. Amelia was confident, at least on the outside. Some nights she never slept, kept awake by the thought of what was happening to Natasha, but nobody but herself knew. She had to stay strong like the rest of them.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Amelia replied in the London accent she hadn't broken out off the entire time at S.H.E.I.L.D, figuring it'd be easier to keep it up so that it became second nature. Trust me, I'll be fine."

"If you say so. Fury's got the your escort on standby for tomorrow. You're lucky, your escort is the massive super-powers jet liner," he said, blocking one of his hits.

"Really? Well, at least I'll be travelling in style. Do you know which agents are assigned to the plane?"

"No, Fury's had that labelled as top level classified. Even I don't know," he shrugged, as she launched another kick at him. The fact that the agents on her escort were classified worried her, but she simply shook it off, presuming it was just S.H.E.I.L.D being extra precarious. After all, she was leaving tomorrow. "Alright, that's us done for the day. I'm pretty sure you're ready, now go and relax for the rest of the day. The worse thing before a mission in nerves."

"Eh, okay," she nodded, walking out of the training room. She'd gotten used to a few routes around the base, but just enough so she could get from the briefing room to the canteen, and from the gym to her room. She didn't do big places well. Amelia considered getting changed into some fresh clothes, but her current ones weren't that sweaty, and she didn't have the effort, so she just headed straight to the briefing room when her dad and they rest of them were going over the plan for tomorrow that she'd already been briefed on.

"..escort will be waiting to get her out of there is anything happens, so don't worry about it," Fury was saying as she walked in. "Ah, speak of the devil. How are you Amelia?"

"I'm good, just finished training with Clint," she nodded at she took a seat beside her dad. Fury had grown to be much kinder to her than he was to any member of the Avengers, and not just because she was only a kid. He admired her bravery of volunteering herself for the mission, and he didn't see the point in being hasty or shouting at her, as he secretly hoped she might end up working for S.H.E.I.L.D one day. "He says I have to relax for the rest of the day."

"I'm afraid relaxing isn't on today's schedule. The missions been put forward, you're leaving in three hours."

"Oh," Amelia said, a bit taken back. It seemed so close now, just three hours away. "Why the change?"

"The longer we wait, the longer Agent Romanov is in there, and the more time they have to build their defences. We have to strike now," Fury explained, earning a small sigh from Tony. He was worried, and no amount of training or kit they gave Amelia would stop that. "You'd better go get ready."

Amelia left the room as her pulse started to quicken, the the nerves were setting in. A million things that could go wrong ran through her head, all of them resulting in failure. She showered, hoping the hot water would take away some of the stress, but it did naught to help.

She was called to the prep room, where she was fitted with tiny bugs and microphones, and given the bugs she was to place if possible. They gave her a thin but sturdy bulletproof vest encase things came to the worse, and her knives were well hidden. She was ready, all that was left was to say goodbye.

"You okay kiddo?" Tony said, walking up to her and wrapping her into a hug. He was worried, she could tell.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about me dad," she assured him, not wanting him to worry.

"Stay safe out there," he murmured, not wanting to let her go. But he had too. She was told that the plane was ready, and she left her dad, hoping it wouldn't be the last time she's see him.

* * *

Amelia was right, she was travelling in style. The jet was complete with a lab, a kitchen area, sleeping quarters, a large office, and all sorts of high tech facilities that were just as good as those at the tower. What's more she was travelling with some pretty nice people.

"Hello Amelia, I'm Agent Coulson, this is Agent May, we'll be part of your escort team," a tall, middle aged man said, with a friendly smile.

"Uh, hello," she replied nervously. Agent May, a tall woman of Asian decent, was looking at her with a completely blank face, but something told Amelia that May didn't quite approve of her going on this mission.

"I understand this is a nervous time and all, but it'd be best if your father and the rest of the Avengers didn't know who it was that escorted you," Coulson said, still sounding kind, "I can't explain why, just trust me."

"Em, yeah sure, okay. I gotta say, this place is impressive."

"Yeah, it was a bit of a gift. Here, let me introduce you to Fitzsimmons," Coulson said, talking her to the lab. When he's said "Fitzsimmons", she had expected one person, but turns out there was two.

"Jessica Simmons," A young, English sounding female said, shaking her hand.

"Leo Fitz," The boy added, who must have been around the same age.

"Amelia Stark," she introduced. She liked the look of the pair, they seemed kind and caring. Simmons seemed taken back by her accent.

"Oh, you sound quite British, but the files said you were American.." she pondered, brow creased.

"It's for the mission, I need to sound like I'm from London. I've been keeping it up for about two weeks," she explained.

"It's very convincing, I must say."

"Thanks. Uh, Coulson, when are we taking off?"

"In about a minute. Come on, I need to talk to you in my office," The Agent told her, leading her once again around the plane. They stepped into a sleek and stylish office, with little trinkets and bits of machinery in small boxes on the shelves. He turned to her and pointed to a chair, saying "Please, take a seat."

"So, Amelia, you are obviously aware of the danger this mission will put you in. You are not to engage in combat unless necessary, and you are to avoid drawing attention to yourself at all costs. If anyone asks, you're a normal, 15 year old London born teenager who got lost on the way home from the shops," he told her, to which she nodded.

"And if anything happens, I'm to send out the distress call to alert you, and try to keep my head down and not get killed," she added.

"Precisely. It'll be a long flight, as we're travelling the usual commercial flight route in order to avoid any suspicion. We'll be flying for around ten hours straight, and then resting for a day to get rid of any jet lag. If they pick up any indication that you're not from London, they'll instantly suspect you. I suggest you make yourself comfortable, you've got a sleeping area, third out of the office."

"Thank you sir," Amelia nodded, standing up.

"Amelia?"

"Yes?"

"Stay safe. I can't imagine what your dad's going through right now, so take care."

"Yes sir."

* * *

It was two hours into their flight, and Amelia was with Fittz and Simmons in the planes lab, testing out all their gadgets. "What did you say this was called again?" she asked, holding a gun they had developed.

"Uh, The Night Night gun," Fittz said, rather shyly. Amelia just giggled.

"I like it, it's memorable," she said. Fittz looked over to Simmons with a grin. "Which processor do the computers run on in here?"

"Amex, with the A17 core," Simmons said.

"Pretty up to date then. The one at the tower is the A19 model, runs smooth and fast. As far as I can see it's pretty similar to this one."

"The A19? It's not due for release till next year," Fittz said excitedly. "What's its projection speed like?"

"Much more accurate, with better resolution."

"Em, I don't suppose that, y'know, being his daughter and all, you could get us a copy of the A19 for the plane..?" He asked.

"Fittz, don't be so rude," Simmons said, shaking her head.

"I'll have a copy send out to you as soon as I get back," she laughed, seeing his massive grin.

"You're like a kid in a candy store," Simmons sighed, rolling her eyes. "Uh, Amelia, I was wondering if you'd want this. You know, for your mission and all."

Amelia turned to face her, and saw that she was handing her a small cylindrical device. It had one small button on it, right in the centre of a S.H.E.I.L.D logo. "What's this?"

"It's not much, and technically it's classified technology, but it can let you pass through walls and floors, so long as they aren't too thick," she explained. "It scatters the atoms but keeps them held within the membrane of the hole it creates, and then puts them back once it's done. It's only got 2 charges in it, so save it for the worst."

"Agent Simmons, I'm honoured. Thank you, so, so very much. This could end up saving my life." She stared at the device in awe. The technology inside the device, oh how she'd love to take it apart. Did her father know they had this? Probably not, or else he'd be working on it himself.

"It's just, Fittz and I, we thought you'd better have it, just encase. You're so young and I couldn't bear to see you get hurt in there or-"

"We think you'll be a little bit safer with it," Fittz said, cutting off his co-worker. "We want you back in one piece after all."

"You guys, are you sure? If Coulson finds out you've given me this-"

"Given you what?" Coulson said, appearing behind them.

"Nothing," All three of them said in unison. Coulson gave them a quick glance, then continued walking. Once he was out of sigh they all fell into laughter, Amelia the happiest she'd been in weeks.

"It's a shame I'm only here for this one mission, I'll miss you two," she told them as they were recovering from their laughter.

"We'll miss you as well. You could always visit if we were at base?" Simmons suggested.

"Yeah, keep in touch," Fittz agreed.

They talked for a little longer, but Amelia started to feel drowsy so she excused herself and went to sit on her bed and read for a while. As the sat, turning the pages as the story went on, her mind was not on the words in front of her, but the the clouds she saw out the window. Eventually she gave up reading, and before long she'd fallen asleep looking out into the sky that was slowly turning from a pale blue to a soft orange.

* * *

"Miss Stark? Miss Stark? Amelia?" she heard a voice call, and as she blinked her eyes open she saw it was Coulson. "You fell asleep. We're making our mid-way landing soon I thought you'd want to stretch your legs a bit."

"Hmm? Uh, yeah actually," she groaned, yawning. Coulson smiled, and walked away, presumable towards his office.

It only took ten minutes for the plane to land, and soon she was out on the runway, stretching and breathing in the crisp air. Coulson was in the airport, talking to the security chief, and everyone else was still on the plane. It was quiet outside, peaceful, a nice change from the inside of a metal husk, however spacious it may be.

"Excuse me Miss," a voice behind her said. She turned to see two men, driving one of the luggage buggies. "Have you seen this child? He's gone missing." The man extended a photo towards her, and Amelia walked forward to see it. When she saw the face of a young boy she hadn't seen, I shook my head.

"No, sorry, I hav-" she began to reply, but a hang clasped around her mouth. Panic took over, and she went with her first reaction which was to bite her attacker. Sinking her teeth into the palm of the man, she tasted hot, coppery blood as the man yelled in pain and threw her forward. Spitting the vile liquid from her mouth, Amelia tried to run off or retaliate, but before she could do anything she felt the other man lock her into a choke hold. Feeling the air slowly escape her lungs, a sharp prick suddenly jabbed her in the back of the neck. Her attacker released her, and she stumbled forward to the ground. She tried to stand up,must her balance was off, and her vision blurring, and so she fell back down to the floor again. Reaching to the back of her neck, she brushed her fingers over the point that hurt and saw tiny traces of blood. She attempted to speak, to call out for help, but no words escaped her mouth before she blacked out completely.

* * *

Natasha looked up from the chair in the corner of the cell where she sat. The door slid open after the guard entered in the correct 6 digit code, and a body got thrown in.

"Enjoy your new roommate," the guard said in a thick, northern English accent. The door slid closed once more and the room was left in silence.

Natasha thought nothing of the body lying on the floor, thinking it was simply another hostage, until it moved and spoke up.

"Uhhggg," they groaned, trying to sit up. That only ended in them vomiting, a side effect to the drug they'd knocked her out with. "Where the hell- what the-"

"Amelia?" Natasha asked, rushing over to the teenager. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

"Missing kid... Two men... Needle in my neck...scouting operation.." Amelia mumbled, throwing up once more. "Come to rescue you..."

"Shh, it's okay, we'll get out of there," Natasha said, pulling the girl close into a comforting embrace. "Just rest, don't worry."

As Amelia drifted off in Natasha's arms, still drowsy from the drug, the S.H.E.I.L.D agent sighed, wondering how they were going to get out of this mess.


End file.
